This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
JAPANESE billionaire and media mogul, Toshiaki Ogasawara has injected $95 million into his $1 billion Emerald Lakes development at Carrara on the Gold Coast.
Ogasawara’s company Nifsan has undergone a major company restructure and Ogasawara flew into the Gold Coast recently to attend to the company’s change of management.
Ogasawara said the retirement of Ian McLean as managing director presented an opportunity for a change in direction for Nifsan and the Emerald Lakes project.
“After careful assessment of the Gold Coast market, Nifsan and Emerald Lakes, I’ve decided to expedite development of the masterplanned community.
“I have every confidence the company’s new management structure will successfully bring the future stages of Emerald Lakes to completion, which has now been brought forward by about three years,” he added.
“It will also allow for the completion of the project’s Town Centre, a major component of the development, which has proposed commercial space for a general store, medical centre, boutique retail and commercial offices,” Ogasawara said.
In January Nifsan’s new board of Australian directors was formed with long-time commercial and residential property developer Greg Campbell taking the reins as managing director.
Campbell will be responsible for overseeing the company’s property development with Gold Coast chartered accountant Wayne Hunt appointed as corporate director to oversee all financial affairs.
Campbell said Ogasawara’s recent multi-million dollar injection will bring his vision of the integrated community to completion much more quickly than anticipated.
The development’s latest stage, the European Village, will be brought forward from the original construction time frame of seven to four years, with completion scheduled for 2011.
The first release of the six stage development, Porto Bellago, fronts Emerald Lakes’ 37-hectare man-made lake and will offer buyers a true taste of Italy. Stage one is currently under construction and scheduled for completion in September this year.
Conceived by Nifsan’s development manager Darren McLean, the exclusive precinct, set on a three hectare waterfront site, will encompass a mix of Italian, French and Spanish architectural styles and incorporate narrow cobblestone streets, public piazzas and monuments inspired by Italian icons such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps.
Ogasawara is one of Japan’s most influential and richest businessmen, residing over The Japan Times, Japan’s oldest running English language newspaper, and Nifco, the country’s largest manufacturer of plastic parts and components for automobiles and home electronic appliances.
He serves on the advisory boards of NIKE, General Electric, Prudential and Avon, and was formerly a director with Bank of America.
He also founded the Ogasawara Foundation, which has funded the Queensland Development Research
Institute, a not-for-profit organisation.
Australian Property Journal
